January, iQog. 



Americanize Journal 



Regarding Hives for Comb 

 Honey 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



It was from 54 to 56 years ago when 

 my father purchased the first colony of 

 bees I can remember anything about. 

 This colony was in what was then called 

 an "old box-hive," being made of rough 

 hemlock lumber, using inch thick boards, 

 just as they come from the sawmill. 

 The neighbor, living 2 miles distant, to- 

 gether with my father, brought the 

 colony home between them, with a sheet 

 around the hive and tied at the 4 cor- 

 ners, through which a pole was thrust, 

 and the pole resting on the shoulder of 

 each. In those days no other way of 

 moving bees was known, as reports 

 were rife, that to move them on a wagon 

 (no spring wagons in those days) was 

 sure to break the combs and thus spoil 

 the "skep," as a hive containing bees 

 and combs was then called. 



When the sheet was being untied pre- 

 paratory to leaving the bees where they 

 were to make their new home, I was the 

 most anxious spectator of the lot, and 

 I remember asking if it required such a 

 great, big house for such a thing as a 

 little bee. It was explained to me that 

 there were thousands of bees in that 

 "house." but some way I could not help 

 thinking that the hive was too big for 

 such little things as bees were. 



The colony it contained cast but one 

 swarm that year, and, as father wished 

 increase, so that he might have several 

 colonies, he was disappointed, and told 

 another bee-keeping neighbor about his 

 disappointment. This man told him 

 that the trouble was that his hive was 

 too big, as large hives did not send out 

 nearly as many swarms as did small 

 ones : so that winter he made much 

 smaller hives for the expected swarms 

 of the next summer ; and as these new 

 hives gave a larger surplus of "box" 

 honey from the new swarms, he con- 

 tinued to make small hK-es for the next 

 few years. Then there came a poor sea- 

 son, when, the next spring, all except 3 

 colonies were found dead from starva- 

 tion, and 2 of those alive, and as strong 

 colonies as we ever had in any spring, 

 were the 2 in those old, big hives. 



When I commenced to keep bees for 

 myself I measured the only one of those 

 old, big hives which had been piled away 

 and kept for use as a sort of "step-lad- 

 der," and found it contained about 3,000 

 cubic inches, while the bee-books of 40 

 years ago were claiming that 2,000 cubic 

 inches was the right size for a hive. So 

 I started out with 2 of the big hives 

 and the rest of the 2,000 cubic inch size. 

 I soon found that there was little dif- 

 ference regarding the wintering problem 

 to be found in the size of hives, so long 

 as the bees had a sufficient amount of 

 stores where they could be near them 

 during the extreme cold of winter ; and, 

 as the large hives, after each good year, 

 contained 50 or 60 pounds of honey in 

 the fall, or twice as much as any colony 

 needed for winter, said honey being 

 from clover and basswood, or that first 

 stored, I was not only losing the sale of 

 the best honey, but losing otherwise 

 through it going into combs in these big 



hives during the first of the season, so 

 that the bees were loth to enter the box- 

 es later on. 



From this I decided that such large 

 hives could not be profitable to the pro- 

 ducer of section honey. Consequently 

 I went to the other extreme, until I used 

 a hive holding only g frames 10^4 by 

 I0;'4 inches square for a brood-chamber, 

 these frames being surrounded at the 

 sides and top with sections. Then I 

 went so far as to cut many of these 

 brood-chambers down to 6 frames, by 

 using dummies on either side to take 

 the place of 3 frames, and supplied the 

 colony with winter stores by putting in 

 frames of sealed honey from the buck- 

 wheat and fall flowers. In this way I 

 secured nearly all of the white or more 

 salable comb honey in the sections, while 

 the colonies wintered on the dark or less 

 salable honey, securing good yields year 

 after year, and wintering quite success- 

 fully where the colonies could be put in- 

 to the cellar during the months of cold 

 weather. New swarms, especially, would 

 give a surplus of section honey of the 

 most fancy kind where hived in these 

 small 6-frame brood-chambers, and where 

 any one can spend the requisite amount 

 of time that such small hives require, 

 good results can be obtained, though I 

 think that a longer frame not more than 

 6 or 7 inches deep would be preferable 

 to the lofi square, or the Gallup frame 

 which I used so long. , 



But with the advent of the out-apiary, 

 there came a change in my views, for no 

 such an amount of time could be spent 

 where an apiarist had several out-apiar- 

 ies, as was required with these small 

 hives; so I finally adopted the 10-frame 

 Langstroth hive as the right size for 

 out-apiary work. With this lo-frame 

 hive I have a brood-chamber of about 

 2,200 cubic inches, which allows an abun- 

 dance of honey for wintering, where the 

 colonies are worked for section honey, 

 while, with plenty of honey in the hives 

 for early spring use, the colonies boom 

 ahead with brood-rearing much faster 

 than they do in the small hives with star- 

 vation "looking them in the face," only 

 as the apiarist sees that they are sup- 

 plied from week to week. 



Then for the out-apiary, non-swarm- 

 ing is a very desirable thing, which can- 

 not very easily be attained, even in the 

 home apiary, with the small hives, so 

 that they are out of the question where 

 one man has several apiaries to look 

 after. 



With the ro-frame hive of the Lang- 

 stroth size, if another of the same size 

 is placed above the first, as soon as it is 

 filled, or nearly so, with brood, with a 

 queen-excluder between the two, the 

 upper hive can be quite well supplied 

 with combs of honey left over from the 

 season previous, so that the colony will 

 feel no need of retrenching their brood, 

 while at the same time the two 10- 

 frame hives give so much room that 

 there will rarely ever be any desire to 

 swarm before the opening of the clover 

 bloom. Then, at the opening of this 

 bloom, this top hive of combs, quite 

 largely filled with honey that they may 

 have stored, together with that given 

 them at the time of putting on the upper 

 hive, can be set down on the stand, all 

 the bees shaken out of the lower hive 



and from their combs of brood, allowing 

 them all to go into what was before the 

 upper hive, the sections being put on at 

 this time, when the larger part of the 

 honey these combs contain will go into 

 the sections, as fast as the queen needs 

 the room for her egg-laying powers. 

 Thus all sv^rming will be done away 

 with, while a yield of section honey can 

 be obtained beyond anything I had 

 known up to the time I struck upon this 

 plan of working hives, and that with the 

 least possible labor necessary when 

 working for section honey. 



As the bees have been at work in the 

 upper hive for some time before it is 

 set down on the stand, it has become 

 their home, so that they are as much at 

 home as ever after being shaken, going 

 at once into the sections, the .same as 

 they had been in the habit of going into 

 the upper hive. 



In this way rousing colonies are ob- 

 tained in time £or the harvest, going 

 into the sections at once ; and, with no 

 desire to swarm, a great surplus is rolled 

 up for the apiarist, with little work. 

 The combs of beeless brood are given 

 to weaker colonies. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Helping the Sale of Honey 



BY DR. C. BOUKER. 



Under the above caption, on page 334 

 (1908), Dr. Miller asks me a number 

 of questions, upon all of which I have 

 expressed my views in former articles, 

 if memory serves me correctly. I will, 

 therefore, recapitulate as briefly as possi- 

 ble in substance what I have said, or 

 aimed to say, heretofore; and will, so 

 far as I am concerned, dismiss the sub- 

 ject for the present at least. I will also 

 say that I have no ax to grind. I am 

 not in the bee-business for either finan- 

 cial gain or notoriet\', as I am too far 

 advanced in years to think of managing 

 a large apiary, being nearly 76 years of 

 age. And at this period of life, it is 

 scarcely to be sujfposed that I should 

 thirst after fame. To keep myself pleas- 

 antly employed, my life having been a 

 busy one, and having a beautiful farm 

 that I improved as a soldier's home- 

 stead, upon which to pass the remainder 

 of my days, I still feel it a duty to learn 

 all I can about the pursuit of apiculture, 

 and, if possible, to aid others who may 

 desire to become bee-keepers ; for among 

 all the industries engaged in by mankind, 

 apiculture has been the most slighted, 

 nearly all the legislative bodies of the 

 world having given but little aid or en- 

 couragement to its advocates, devotees, 

 and admirers; and Dr. Miller, and all 

 interested, may rest fully assured that 

 I will throw no obstacles in the way of a 

 ready market for the well-earned prod- 

 ucts of the apiary. 



I deem it no injustice to bee-keeping 

 to tell the truth, and the whole truth, 

 concerning the properties of honey and 

 beeswax, as far as I understand them. 

 I did state the fact that beeswax pos- 

 sesses no nutritive properties available 

 to the human system ; that as a laxative 

 or carthartic proper, it never was, is not 

 now, and in all probability never will be, 

 recognized by standard authorities upon 

 the properties of medicines; and that 



